A LOCAL charity is now walking hundreds of kilometres in memory of a man who died of a rare cancer.
On Thursday, August 13, two members of The Ricky Casey Trust embarked on a 560-kilometre walk in memory of their friend, who died after living with the condition in his kidneys in 2019.
The journey will take Lee McAllister and Paul Ratcliffe from Plymouth to Oldham in 10 days, with the pair set to arrive back on August 22.
Along the way, the two will pass through a string of football grounds, including Aston Villa and Forest Green Rovers, before eventually making their way to Springhead Football Club for a final evening fundraiser.
“This campaign that we’re doing now is about taking it far and wide,” said Ricky’s wife Nicola Casey, who first founded the Trust in 2020.
“We try to base whatever challenge we do around Ricky’s birthday. Ricky would have been 56 this year, so it works out to 560 kilometres.
“We want to go across the country, which is why we’re taking down to Plymouth. Lee McAllister is a trustee and a main walker, and ‘Ratty’ – Paul – is doing it all with him. We’ve also got a support vehicle, which is Andy Revell, and they’ve all took time off work.
“They’ve been training really hard for this, and obviously they’re away from their families for nearly two weeks. It’s going to be gruelling, and it’s going to be really hot, but it’s all for one thing and that’s awareness for the charity.”
For Nicola, the fundraiser is just the latest in a long line of events to raise awareness for her husband, a firefighter and football fanatic.
Ricky died at the age of 56 after a long battle with renal medullary carcinoma (RMC), a rare and aggressive form of cancer which grows in the kidneys.
While rare, RMC is most common in males and people of African descent, and is most often seen in young people and teenagers. Those with sickle cell trait are at particular risk.
Its main symptoms include blood in the urine, a lump in the abdomen, and fevers or night sweats. For those diagnosed with stage 1-3 RMC, the average survival rate is only 18 months – though more than 70 per cent of patients are only diagnosed at stage four.
“There are lots of rare cancers, and you do hear from some people this idea of, ‘Why should we pay for your treatment?’,” Nicola added.
“We got refused treatment when Ricky was poorly. It was basically like, ‘there’s not enough evidence that this drug’s going to work for you, so unfortunately there’s nothing more we can do for you’. Basically: ‘Just go home and die.’
“It’s a brutal way to put it, but that’s the top and bottom of it. Ricky was a firefighter, he was local hero and saving lives, but no one was prepared to do the same in return.
“Something kicked in me. I thought, ‘I can’t do this, this can’t be all there is.’ I can’t stop fighting for Ricky, and I can’t stop fighting for others.”
After Ricky’s passing, Nicola took it upon herself to found The Ricky Casey Trust – the UK’s first dedicated RMC charity.
The group work with patients, doctors, and supporters around the world to raise awareness of RMC, as well as fundraise for research and medical equipment.
The money they raise goes directly towards funding treatment for patients, who Nicola says can often face long waiting times or, like Ricky, difficulties in accessing treatment at all.
“More and more people have been getting in touch with me, and more and more people are getting diagnosed,” she told Saddleworth Independent.
“I just hope that we are going to be able to find drugs and people aren’t going to have to go to the other side of the world.
“I was emailing America at about ten o’clock last night for someone in the UK – I shouldn’t have to be doing that when the UK has so much access to drugs. It’s crazy, it’s just crazy.
“We’re the only UK charity dealing with and supporting RMC patients, but I can only do so much at the end of the day. I’m not clinical, I can’t give advice on drugs, but what I can do is be a vice and push forward for them and put them in touch with the right people.”
But despite difficulties in procuring treatment, Nicola says there have been positive outcomes.
Nicola said: “We have had successes. We’ve got a GP module out there across England and Scotland and Wales, and hopefully GPs are going to log into this training module and it will resonate with them. Hopefully, more people will get diagnosed as a result.
“One patient I’ve been supporting since the start is coming up to five years of clear scans now, so that’s our aim – to get more of all this. I’ve got another couple that I’ve been supporting for more than 18 months, and he’s in a totally different position than he would have been if he hadn’t found us.”
With The Ricky Casey Trust’s latest fundraiser, the team now hope to raise even more vital funds to continue the fight against RMC.
As well as helping patients directly, the Trust’s biggest goal is to fund the UK’s first clinical trial into RMC, which they say will cost around £500,000.
So far, the Trust has raised nearly half of the funds needed since 2020, and now hope the 560-kilometre walk will be their most successful challenge yet.
They are aiming to raise £15,000 in total – and are already more than three quarters of the way there.
“I’m hoping [Lee and Paul] keep well, and that they get home in one piece,” Nicola said. “I just want to raise as much money as we can, and I’m dead, dead proud of them.
“When I first started this off, I think people thought, ‘Oh, she’s just got this idea, and it will just get her through a few months while she’s grieving for Ricky’. But obviously, this is forever. It’s not something that we’ve done on a whim, it’s about saving lives.
“I couldn’t save Ricky. But I hope I can save someone else’s life. If I can help just one person, if I can make a difference out of the devastating thing that we went through under Ricky’s legacy and name, then it’s a job we’ve done well.”
Donations to The Ricky Casey Trust can be made on the charity’s fundraising website.
A final fundraising party to celebrate the end of the walk will be held at Springhead Football Club at 4pm on August 22.
Featuring a live performance by the Two Connors, the event will also include food, music, and a late bar.
Tickets cost £5, and are available at:
- The Limekiln Café, Dobcross.
- Dobcross Post Office.
- Delph Post Office.
- Be Creative Crafts, Uppermill.
- Halo Hairdressing, Grotton.
- Springhead FC, Springhead.
- K’s Lounge, Springhead.
- The Devonshire Arms, Lees.
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